PBS News Hour

AMNA NAWAZ: Welcome to the "NewsHour."

There was major news out of the Supreme Court today, as a decision came down in a highly anticipated reproductive rights case where the justices protected access to widely used abortion pills.

GEOFF BENNETT: In a unanimous decision, the court ruled that a group of anti-abortion doctors does not have any legal basis to challenge access to mifepristone.

That's one of the two common drugs used in medication abortion.

As a result, access to mifepristone will not change.

Let's bring in our John Yang.

John, it's great to have you here.

So this ruling did not address the underlying issues that the plaintiffs raised, instead deciding the case only on standing.

That this decision was unanimous, was that surprising?

JOHN YANG: Not entirely.

The oral arguments back in March really focused on this question of standing.

Did the doctors have the legal right to sue?

And in his opinion, the unanimous opinion today, Justice Kavanaugh essentially said, no, they don't have a direct personal stake in this.

Because they're anti-abortion doctors, because they are morally opposed to abortion, they don't prescribe mifepristone.

They don't perform abortion procedures.

So what they were challenging was the regulation of other doctors who did.

And you can't do that in our system.

GEOFF BENNETT: There's another big abortion-related case that we're waiting on.

It has to do with abortion law in Idaho.

Does this ruling in any way give an indication of what might be to come out of the Idaho case?

JOHN YANG: I don't think so, not really, because it's a totally different question.

The question in Idaho is whether their essentially total ban on abortion -- the only exception is to save the life of the mother -- whether that violates the federal law that says that hospitals have to provide emergency treatment to stabilize the patient, even if it's not saving their life.

And in that oral argument, there were all sorts of real-world examples of doctors airlifting patients out of Idaho, so they could get the medical treatment that they thought they needed.

GEOFF BENNETT: So mifepristone remains available to women up to the 10th week of pregnancy.

It's still available through the mail.

What's next?

Does this case resolve any of the debate, the lingering fight around abortion pills?

JOHN YANG: Well, as you said, Geoff, they didn't get to the merits on this one.

And there are three Republican-led states, Missouri, Kansas, and Idaho, that want to press this case, this fight against mifepristone.

That's going to be going on at the district court level.

It may take a little while to reach the Supreme Court.

And then, of course, there's the Comstock Act.

That's that 19th century law that makes it illegal to send materials that could lead to an abortion through the mail.

And the Justice Department currently says that does not apply to prescriptions for mifepristone, but anti-abortion activists are already talking about trying to use that law to ban medicinal abortions if there's a new Trump administration.

GEOFF BENNETT: All right, John Yang, thanks so much for walking us through all of this.

We appreciate it.

JOHN YANG: Thank you.